As individuals spend approximately one-third of their lives sleeping, optimization of the sleep experience can have significant benefits for an individual. While conditions for optimizing a sleep experience vary from individual to individual, generally it is desirable to have a comfortable physical posture in a prone position lying upon a bed or other underlying support structure having a desired amount of firmness/softness and a desired amount of conforming shape to the user's body.
Perhaps the most important portion of the underlying support for the user during sleep is the pillow for supporting the head of the user. Pillows vary in dimensions, as well as degree to which they conform to the head of the user. Once an optimal pillow has been identified by an individual, the individual will often keep the pillow for a long period of time, potentially even taking the pillow with the individual on trips, so that sleep away from a home location can to some extent match the sleep experience enjoyed at home.
Typically, the pillow used by the individual is covered by some form of case. The case beneficially allows for frequent washing so that clean fabric is presented against the user's head without requiring frequent washing of the pillow itself. While pillows are known to have a variety of different shapes and contours, perhaps the most common shape for a sleep pillow is a rectangular form with a width approximately fifty percent greater than a height. Longer edges of the pillow can generally be referred to as sides while shorter edges of the pillow can generally be referred to as ends. A typical pillow case has closed sides as well as one closed end. A second end is typically open to allow the pillow to be easily inserted and removed from the case.
The sleep experience is often further enhanced by minimizing light striking the sleeping individual, and minimizing noise experienced by the sleeping individual. Even with eyes closed, excessive light striking the eyelids of the individual penetrate through the eyelids to some extent and tend to stimulate the vision center of the brain, often resulting in disruption of sound sleep. Similarly, excessive noise can stimulate the auditory center of the brain and provide excessive stimulation to the brain to disrupt sound sleep. Accordingly, it is known in the prior art to provide sleep aides in the form of light blocking and sound blocking equipment. Such equipment is particularly desirable when it is not possible to effectively control light and noise within a sleeping room.
One form of common light blocking sleep aide is a “sleep mask.” Such a sleep mask is generally in the form of a small pillow of material shaped to rest over the eyes of the user. Some form of strap is typically attached to ends of the small pillow with the strap long enough to gird about the head of the user. The strap thus holds the eye pillow in place over the eyes of the user. The eye pillow is typically formed of a soft material which is also sufficiently opaque to block substantially all light from passing through the eye pillow.
While the sleep mask is generally effective overall in blocking light striking the eyes of the sleeping individual, sleep masks do have some drawbacks. The strap must pass around the head of the sleeping individual, presenting the potential for tangling with the hair of the individual or otherwise providing excessive tactile stimulation to the individual which can then stimulate tactile sensory centers of the brain and disrupt the sleep experience. Furthermore, such sleep masks present a separate object which must be stored and then accessed when needed for convenient use.
Often an individual is not fully aware of the need of the sleep mask when first going to sleep. Hours later, when the sun comes up and strikes the sleeping individual, the sleeping individual desires to continue to sleep but needs to block light striking the user's eyes. The user must then find and don the sleep mask for it to be effectively utilized. If this process is too complex, the process of putting on the sleep mask will itself awaken the individual to the point where it may be difficult to again achieve sound sleep. Even if the sleep mask is already present adjacent the sleep area, such as resting on a nightstand adjacent the sleeping individual, the sleeping individual must still place the sleep mask over the user's eyes and position the strap about the user's head before going back to sleep. Such a process typically at a minimum requires opening of the user's eyes to find the sleep mask and a not insignificant amount of fiddling with the strap before the sleep mask is in the desired position. Accordingly, a need exists for a light occluding structure which can be more readily deployed when needed by an individual, even with eyes closed and maintaining a quasi-sleeping or barely awake state, so that return to sound sleep can most effectively be achieved.
Prior art equipment also exists to minimize sound sensed by a sleeping individual. For instance, ear plugs are commonly known which can be placed within the ears of the individual to block sound experienced by the individual while sleeping. Similarly, noise canceling headphones are known which can passively and actively act to minimize sound passing to the ears of the individual. Such sound blocking equipment, while generally effective, shares many of the drawbacks experience by sleep masks in that once the sound blocking equipment is required, the user typically must awaken sufficiently to find and deploy the sound blocking equipment for it to be effective, with such activity typically disrupting the sleep experience.
Accordingly, a need also exists for a sound blocking system which can be readily deployed by an individual in a quasi-sleeping or barely awake state. Most preferably, such a system would be capable of deploying both light blocking and sound blocking equipment simultaneously in such an easy fashion that the user could truly remain sleeping, or only barely awaken before achieving effective light and sound blocking and resumption of a sound sleeping experience.